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Dorwinion
Dorwinion is an Avarin realm that lies upon the shores of the Sea of Rhun. It is known for its vinyards, and the wines produced by this land are among the best as well as most potent alchoholic beverages in all of Middle-earth. History The Avari of Dorwinion originally settled the Brown Lands, home of the Ent-wives. along the Anduin. They would remain there, for thousands of years, until the War of the Elves and Sauron drove them into Rhun. They would take their wine craft, learned from the Ent-wives, and found a realm there. Government The realm is not a kingdom but a network of small to large villages each under a chief or elder. It has one large town presided over by a lord and his council. All important decisions for the realm as a whole are made by this grand council consisting of the heads of each township. Relations The Dorwindrim have trading relations to the Easterlings, being a node in the East-West Road. The forest of Taur Romen: Far less settled than their Dorwinion cousins, living in Flets as befitting their life as a forest people and largely keeping out of the affairs of neighboring Easterlings. Many of the wandering eastern Avari make journeys as far west as Taur Romen to share tidings of distant lands. There is a practical relationship between the 2 Avari communities. There is trade by both ship and land and matters of mutual defense are decided in joint council. There are some dealings with the Dwarven community of Nurunkizdín, to their South in the Mountins of Rhun. It was they who helped build the walls of Celduin na Rhûngaer and hewed its underground chambers. Dorwinion has a pact of mutual defense with them. Geography Dorwinion is set in a pleasant open hill country of many running brooks, vines and gardens, as well as scattered broadleaf and coniferous woodlands on the northwestern shores of the Sea of Rhun. The land is bounded by hills and mountains to its southeast and by the River Running to the north. Along its slower, lower reaches and the slightly steeper slopes of the rushing Uldona, lie the rich, fertile valleys and its many vineyards. There, and near the shores of northern Rhun, the Dorwindrim produce the finest wines in all Middle-earth. A grassy plain runs in Western Dorwinion through which the lower Uldona flows. Demographics Because of its setting and its trade relations, it has a not insignificant amount of Sindarin influence. Particularly in the town of Celduin na Rhûngaer, which has a Sindarin lord, Aradur, kin to Oropher, ruler of the Elven realm in Greenwood-the-Great. Sindarin is widely spoken by its townspeople. Most of the Dorwindrim use as an everyday language, a form of the Avarin Penni tongue but with many loan words from both the Sindar and Silvan Elven languages. The trading community speaks Westron and some of the Easterling dialects. The realm of Dorwinion has an approx. population of 25,000, making it the mort populated and densely settled Avarin realm west of the Orocarni. Most of the Dorwindrim reside in the Eastern hill-lands and in Celduin na Rhûngaer , with another more dispersed population of Avari near the confluence of the Celduin and the Uldona. Military The realm can muster at need an army of 4500. (1200 horse archers, a mail-clad town guard of 350, the remainder, mostly lightly armed infantry/archers) Because of its proximity to and trade dealings with various Easterling tribes , and because formerly they had settled in similar open country in the South (before being dislodged by the movement of peoples in the wake of the War of the Elves and Sauron), a segment of the Dorwindrim have maintained an equestrian tradition and are noted horsearchers. Etymology Sindarin: Dorwinion ‘Great land of youth’ The meaning of “Dorwinion" is conjectural, based on lines from "The Hobbit" that suggest that this is the land where the elf-king, Thranduil’s, folk got their strong wine, which is suspicious since there is little reason to believe that there is a similarity between Sindarin "win" and the similarly sounding English "wine". Parma Eldalamberon 17:191 suggests a new interpretation based on "gwîn", meaning "young”. • dôr S – land E • gwîn S – young E • -on S – great E, as in ardhon • -ion S – (great) realm, as in rhovanion, eregion dôr + gwîn → dorwin, lenition, vowel shortening Map of Dorwinion and the Sea of Rhun Category:Realms Category:Regions